


Orange Is The New Sirius Black

by gucciwolfstar



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Blackmail, Bonfires, But there's no blonde girl that needs saving, Contraband, Criminal Charges, Dark Remus Lupin, Drug Use, Escape Plans, Everything badass that could happen does happen, F/M, Is this too many tags, LOTS of violence, M/M, Mental Illness, Mentioned Abuse, Muggle AU, Nightmares, Out of Control Parties, Reform School, Relapse, Riots, Rule Breaking, Self Harm, Skipping Medication, Weapon use, alcohol use, also Marlene and Lily having matching tongue piercings to show how badass they are, and psychedelic trips too, angsty teenagers, dark? sirius black, except without explosions and mass breakouts, harsh punishments, i mean there's Marlene but she's like the most badass of all of them, its basically a James Bond movie, jks I lied there's heaps of explosions and mass breakouts, just shut up and read the story, lots of triggering content, probably, unhealthy coping methods, whatever
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2018-10-28
Packaged: 2019-05-23 13:01:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14934749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gucciwolfstar/pseuds/gucciwolfstar
Summary: The powers that be only saved ankle bracelets for the worst of the worst.The hard cases.The fuck ups.The ones that deserved the maximum penalty.You basically had to be criminally insane to earn one of these bad boys.Yeah.That was him alright.*WORK IN PROGRESS*





	1. Meds, Beds and Reds

**Author's Note:**

> This plot was heavily inspired by the novels "Fallen" by Lauren Kate and "The Darkest Minds" by Alexandra Bracken.
> 
> This is my first ever fanfic so go easy on me & not gonna lie the updates are wildly inconsistent 
> 
> but enjoy losers <3

_“The muffled screaming threatened to overpower him, flashes of his life raced before him. The pain, the blood, the screaming. Everything was spiralling down. Death and despair hammered against his skull, begging to be released. Memories of the harsh flames ripped across his vision, leaving the suffocating smoke filling his lungs.He was teetering on the edge of madness, where only one little push would send him plummeting off the edge and down into the deep abyss._  
He took one last deep breath.  
And then he plunged."  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•

Sirius still remembered his first day.

He had arrived ten minutes late and on his entry, pushed the metal lobby doors open so hard they left dents in the cold white walls. The entire group whipped around to stare at him. He was a scrawny little boy holding himself with as much confidence as he could, which ultimately earned him a scowl from the head of orientation. 

"So as I was saying, follow the three basics and no one gets hurt," she said in a bored voice as she lead them down the hallway towards the hospital wing. She gestured at the doorway with an exaggerated air.

"The first is MEDS, Here is where you will take said meds if required, to keep you alive, breathing, sane, whatever.”

Sirius looked towards the doorway, he could see a glimpse of the row of beds against the far wall, and off to the side he saw an L shaped counter with lots of drawers. He squinted his eyes and could just make out the word "medication" slapped across one of them.

He straightened back up and took a deep breath, he would have to get used to that room. He'd been put on meds right after the incident this past summer, he was forced to take two little white pills every morning to "repress any violent outbursts" as if he were a wild animal. Which is where they got it wrong, He wasn't a violent person naturally, his fucked up family made him that way.

"That reminds me," she paused for a moment to grab a large cardboard box that sat behind the counter. They words PROHIBITED MATERIALS were printed on the front in black marker.  
"Cough 'em up." 

The group of kids shuffled up to the box and Sirius stood amazed, as he watched them all empty their pockets. Swiss Army knives, spray paint cans, bolt cutters and screwdrivers were all dumped into the box. He even watched a small boy, no older than eleven, empty a box of matches and a container of lighter fluid into it. He felt almost stupid at not bringing in a hazard of his own, until he saw the group reach into their pockets and toss their mobile phones in.

He leaned over to read the the label more carefully, he saw that all mobiles, radios, pagers and any two way communication devices were banned. He sighed and added his phone into the mix. It's not like he had anyone to talk to anyway. 

He leaned back and took another look around at the group and saw that the woman was holding her hand out to one of the boys. 

"Give it here James," she said with a knowing air. Sirius didn't know how she knew his name, maybe he had missed that part of the intro.

He looked at the boy and saw that he was about the same age as him, maybe a little older, with jet black hair and hazel eyes hidden behind his wire rim glasses. He was tall and a little lanky, but not in an unhealthy way. He stood with confidence and he had a smirk on his face. Sirius didn't need to know anything about him to realise that this kid was going to be a smartass.

"I don't know what you're talkin' about miss," he said calmly. He spoke with an Australian twang to his voice, which stood out tremendously here in Surrey. The woman gave him a dirty look and Sirius watched as she reached into his pocket and brought out a pocket knife. She tossed it into the box then turned to face him.

"The rules haven't changed since your little holiday," she said in a sing song voice, like she was talking to a three year old. "You're still not allowed your little pocket knife.” 

James just continued to smirk. "Then I guess I'm allowed to skip orientation."

He went to take a step away but the woman's hand clamped down on his shoulder. "Not a chance," she said with her lip curled. "You're a new student again, which means you're back to square one. Too bad if you don't like it, you should of thought twice before breaking parole.”

James simply rolled his eyes as she removed her hand.

"Right then, moving on, BEDS" she called out as she led the group down a side wing full of rooms.

Sirius looked over at James, who met his eye and flashed him a smile before moving down the corridor after the woman. 

"Now these pleasant rooms are the boys dormitories, four boys a pop, ten rooms in total."  
The woman said as she gestured to them. 

"The girl dormitories are in the opposite wing and I know what you guys are thinking,"  
she swept her eyes around the room. 

“i know the way teenagers minds work, if you even think about trying to engage in, how should i say, after curfew activities-“ 

She pointed at the top of the doorway they had all just walked through. Sirius turned to look along with the rest of the group and immediately say what she was pointing at.

"This is where the REDS come in," she emphasized.

She looked at all the boys in turn before landing on Sirius.  
"Can you tell me what that is hotshot?"

He met her gaze and stood up a little straighter.  
"It's a camera" he said bluntly. The dim red light was blinking in an eerily slow pattern. 

She put on the fakest smile he had ever seen.  
"Correct! That is a camera, meaning everything you do in this little area will be filmed," her voice dropped the fake cheerfulness.

"In all seriousness though, as long as you're here, you will be watched. Every room In this school is equipped with them. You're all here for a reason, a bad reason, which means sorry to say, we don't trust you."

Sirius was shocked at how easily she was saying all this. He started to wonder whether all the staff were this blunt.

"And that concludes the orientation," she finished. She turned and slapped a piece of paper that was stuck on the wall. "This list will tell you which room your in and who you're rooming with."

She looked around at the group once more.

"Now which one of you is Sirius Black?"

A chill ran through him as he was singled out.  
"That would be me"

She gave him a once over, "Right then, follow me." She said in a sharp voice and started to walk back down the hallway. His heart worked overtime as he turned around and followed her into a small, room around the corner.

She gestured for him to sit on one of the few chairs as she took a lock out of her pocket and began opening a cabinet against the wall.

Sirius looked at the rusty looking cabinet, wondering what could be in there. He watched as the woman picked up something metallic and shiny from the drawer, them shut and locked it with a bang. She carefully placed the object down, them turned to face him.

"So I hear you like fire." She said in a low tone.

Sirius could swear he felt a stab to the heart, He tried to avoid thinking about happened that night. Everytime he closed his eyes he could still see the flames licking every surface, he could still smell the thick smoke threatening to enclose him. And he could still hear the screaming, it echoed around his brain, cutting through any spare thoughts and forced him to remember. 

He didn’t want to remember. He straightened up his back and glared at her from under his long eyelashes. "Something like that." he replied while trying to keep his tone calm. He watched as her mouth twitched, like she was holding back a smile.

"See the thing is Black." she said, matching his calm tone. “All kids sent here are ranked depending on how serious their crimes are. The Ones are petty, one time things like vandalism and theft. Twos are like Ones but more frequent.” She flicked her eyes over to Sirius. “Repeat offenders, gang members ecetera. “Threes are mostly people on medication for anger issues and such, who are prone to be abusive.” She paused to take a breath. “Fours are those involved with illegal substances, drugs, weapons, fake paperwork, you name it.” 

She reached over to the object she had picked up from the cabinet and his stomach jolted as he realised what it was. “And then of course there are Fives, the highly dangerous ones, those plotting terrorists attacks, committing murder, you name it.” Suddenly he had to focus on slowing his breathing down.  
“You Black, classify in that rank.” She informed him, kneeling down in front of him. In one swift motion she clipped the piece of metal to his ankle and he watched the little red light blink twice before going out.  
Sirius refused to react, instead, he just sat there quietly. He wasn't going to give her any satisfaction. She continued to talk in her condescending tone about the rules of the bracelet. 

How if he took one step of the property the red light would turn on and he would be tracked by gps.  
How, if a student with a bracelet was acting up, they could be submitted to a tranquilliser gun to keep them in check.  
And how, he would never be able to take it off without its proper key, which would be kept in a secure place at all times.  
Sirius just say there and listened, and when it was time to leave he walked out the door and didn't look back.

Everyone had already left to settle in by the time he came back to the common room. He decided that that was where he should start and went to check what dorm he was in. He took a few deep breaths to steady himself then walked over and skimmed the list for his name. He saw that he was in #7 and he would be sharing with James Potter and Peter Pettigrew. He didn't know who Peter was but hopefully he was pleasant. He went to pick up his bag, when suddenly he heard a voice call to him.  
"So you must be my roommate,"  
Sirius looked up into his face. "Yeah it seems so," he replied in a low voice.  
James started walking towards him and Sirius watched as his eyes traveled towards his ankle, and he did a double take when he saw what was there.

"fuck, so you're one of the hard cases," he pointed out as he stopped in front of Sirus.  
"Yeah so fucking what?" Sirius snapped back a little too sharply. He watched as James plastered a massive grin across his face at his attitude. He quickly held out his hand.  
"James Potter, nice to meet ya."

Sirius shook his hand, and for the next hour he listened to James fill him on the real basics. 

He learnt quickly who was cool and who to avoid. He learnt little shortcuts around the school and which teachers accepted bribes. In almost no time he was laughing along side James as they walked back to their shared dorm.

To this day, he was still proud to call James his best friend.


	2. Character Development

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which James is noble, Peter has weed and yellow is NOT the colour for curtains.

“Bloody hell, this is new,”  
“Yeah I only got it two days ago,”  
“And you didn’t think to tell me?”  
“Be lucky you’re getting some at all, I should make you pay for it,”  
“I’m your best mate!”  
“This is also business,”  
“You’re such a fucking rat.”

Sirius groaned as he woke up, his eyes bleary as he lifted his heavy head off the pillow and looked towards his bickering roommates.

The morning light was bathing the room through the crack between the dreary yellow curtains. Why they were yellow, he couldn’t tell you. 

And it wasn’t even a nice yellow, it was so bland mustard colour that should not of even been an option for the interior design.

Frankly, he was pissed.  
He had a late night and had managed to sneak back into his dorm without waking James or Peter. If he had known they would wake him up by arguing only a few hours later, he would have slapped both of those wankers on his way in.

His eyes focused on his roommates and he watched on as James picked up a clear little bag that Peter had placed down and let out a little squeal excitement.

Holding back an eye roll, He shuffled until all sunlight was blocked by his bed spread before speaking.

“Can you two politely shut the fuck up?” He whined from under the blanket.

Barely a moment later he felt his blanket ripped from his hands as his face was blinded by light.

“Do you bloody mind you wankers?” He groaned, squinting at the movement.

Both of his roommates had turned to look at him, with only Peter having enough decency to look ashamed of himself.

Finally, he was able to make out some blurry brown eyes looking at him from above.

“About time you got up you lazy prick, did you go and see Marlene again?”

“Fuck off James,” he mumbled. One arm flung across his forehead to block the intrusive light.

Peter’s pale blue eyes seemed to widen with glee. “Wait what? I thought you were done with that bird,”

Sirius let out a huge sigh and sat upright, letting his arms drop to his sides.

“I am Peter, we’re just friends.” He reached up to tuck a dark lock of hair behind his ear. “And not that it’s any of your business James.” He turned to look the smug bastard in the face. “but she’s dating Kingsley now.” 

“That bloke that’s a level two but thinks he’s top shit?”

“Talking about yourself are we ?”

James scoffed.  
“Please, I have standards.”

“What’s wrong with Marlene? She thinks you’re an arrogant pig.” Sirius raised an eyebrow. “I thought that was mandatory for your affection.”

Peter looked up at James.  
“I still can’t believe you’ve finally managed to win Evans over, what’s it been? two years?”

James wiggles his eyebrows. “What can i say Pete? I can be very persuasive.” he added a wink at the end that had Peter stifling a laugh.

Done with the conversation, his eyes swept around the room, instantly flicking towards towards the multiple bags that had been laid across James’s bed. Each with a small amount of what looked like dried herbs in it. 

Curiosity finally got the better of him as he swung out of bed and strode over to take a better look.

“Bloody hell Pete, you got a new strain?” He asked, slightly taken back.

Peter gave Sirius a grin as he began grabbing the bags and stashing them back underneath his mattress where they belonged.

“Yeah, only got it Friday night,”

Sirius returned the grin with a slight head shake. Pete was unbelievable when it came to “prohibited substances” he knew exactly where to get them from. Only a small few of St Godrics staff were willing to be bribed and Pete had a knack for finding out who they were. The whole campus knew that he was the guy to go to when you needed a fix, for a reasonable price of course.

“Anyway talking about Evans, i told her i’d meet her soon so can we get moving lads?”

“Yeah because annoying Lily before she’s even had a chance to wake up properly is always a good idea, remember when she poured that bowl of French onion soup over you?”

“Gee, thanks Pete I totally forgot about that.” James spoke with sarcasm. “I had to throw out that jumper.” He furrowed his brow. “It was a really nice one too.”

Sirius snorted “Well you did yell out to her across the hall that her arse looked good in her jeans,”

“Aussies dont lie, we are noble people.” 

James’s crooked smile revealed his brilliant white teeth. “Anyways she actually likes me now so the chances of injury are fairly low.”

Sirius reached for his closest pair of jeans and began tugging them on. He was especially careful to cover his tracker. He was one of the only level 5s left at this school and people loved to gossip. 

After shoving his shoes on, Sirius walked over to the doorway and looked at the other two from over his shoulder.

“Come on then i’m starving.”


	3. *Enter Love Interest From Stage Left*

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which pills are popped and first impressions are made.

Walking into the cafeteria was like some bad high school movie, Sirius thought.

You could see all the different cliques that home at St Godrics Reform School, the losers who think graffiti is “an art” and the fucked up kids who ate their parents or something. You know, the nerds, the straight up weirdos etc. 

But worst of all was the centre table, which consisted of arrogant jocks and their cheerleader type girlfriends.

But he had to admit, owning the centre table felt very empowering. Even though he wasn’t just a jock, he was much more punk rock than that. 

And the girlfriend part.  
Well.  
That bit was hard to pull off when you were gay.  
But you get the drift.

“How do you want your eggs Marlene?”  
He asked as he reached down the table to pass the plates of food down to his mates.

They was a slight twitch in the corner of her mouth before she cheekily replied.

“Unfertilised please Sirius.”

He snorted as James spat pumpkin juice all over his lap.

“You’re terrible Mckinnon,” he remarked, chuckling. 

“That’s why you love me Black,” she winked.

Sure they’d hooked up a few times over the past year before he realised he “batted for the other team” but overall he felt a platonic love for Marlene and she trusted her.

She was there for him when he didn’t want to hassle James with his drama and she let him rant to her while slipping in some well intentioned advice when he needed it the most. He was incredibly thankful for her.

He leaned over the table top and rested his head in his right hand.

“So how’s the boyfriend?” he smirked as he watched her roll her eyes.

“He’s got detention, again,” she remarked bluntly. Sirius watched her lower lip protrude.

“I know his hearts in the right place but he needs to stop fighting other peoples battles.” she blew a blonde ringlet out of her eyes. “I hate bullies as much as anyone but you can’t step in whenever the mood strikes.”

Sirius watched as she stabbed a piece of bacon with her fork on the last word.

“I guess he has a bit of a “saving people” complex.” she said with yet another eye roll, head slightly tilted to the side.

“That sounds about right.”

They shared a smile before James leaned over Lily’s lap to whisper in Sirius’s ear.

“Oi, Looks like Pomfrey’s after you.”

His hazel eyes quickly shot to the doorway to the courtyard, he followed James’s glance and saw the short nurse staring him down. After a moment Sirius stood up.

“oh fuck i forgot to go see her last night.”  
He mentally cursed himself before grabbing him backpack and making his way over to her.

“Hey-ay Pomphrey how are you?”  
he asked nonchalantly, sticking his hands in his jacket pocket.

she glared down at him with her eyebrow arched.

“Where were you last night Black?”

The breath Sirius was holding let out in a sigh. He straightened up and prepared himself.

“Listen-“  
“We had a deal.”

He wasn’t prepared to be shot down so quickly, but he figured it was best to just give in.

“I know, i’m sorry it won’t happen again,”  
he ducked his head down and returned his hands to his pockets.

After a moment Pomphrey sighed.

“Come on then.”

•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•

After all this time Sirius still hated the hospital wing. The clinical smell and the cold white walls made his skin crawl. Every night he focused on getting in and getting out as quickly as possible. God forbid someone saw him and made up yet another rumour about the big bad Sirius Black.

His thoughts were interrupted by Pomphrey placing a cup of water a little too aggressively in front of him, he watched as a few drops of water splashed out onto the white counter and without speaking he opened his hand and waited.

She turned to grab a small container labelled “Sirius B” and shook it into her hand and after a moment, two little white pills were placed in his palm. He looked up at the nurse from under his long eyelashes and saw her give him a skeptical glance.

 

He popped the pills into his mouth and made an obvious show of swishing the water around and then swallowing. He then stuck his tongue out to prove he had taken them.

“Ok you’re good to go,”

She reached out her arm and snatched the still mostly filled cup, which she then proceeded to tip down the drain and throw the cup in the bin.

“Don’t forget again Sirius.” she added as she turned away to her office door.

He rolled his eyes and made for the exit. Looking over his shoulder to made sure she was facing away, he ducked behind the counter and swiped back his pack of cigarettes she had confiscated the other day. Then he walked out of the room, slamming open the doors as he left, almost hitting the next kid entering.

As he walked down the corridor and out into the courtyard, he made sure no one was looking at him. He quickly spat the little round pills into his hand and flung them into the nearest bush.

He hadn’t actually swallowed any in months, he felt more in control when he boycotted them. Seeing how they had no withdrawal side effects proved how pointless they were in the first place.

He was told on his first day that if he took all his medication and followed all the rules he should be out in about six months.

It was now coming on three years.

•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
Remus Lupin was not easily intimated.

At least, not anymore.

But as he walked towards the hospital wing, he had to admit that St Godrics Reform School was something else.

All the buildings he has seen so far were cold. All the staff members were quick to remind him that he was to listen to them at all costs. As he walked in he had also made eye contact with a particularly sinister looking blonde, surrounded my what looked to be his brainless clique.

The head of this school, Professor Mcgonagall told him he would be rooming with, although troublesome, three seemingly nice boys.

One was called James, he remembered and from what he gathered he seemed like a bit of a shithead. But although he seemed to irritate every staff member to no end, they seemed to find him endearing.

Another was called Peter. He had actually seen him for a brief moment in the headmasters waiting room. Peter had walked past him, nodding politely as a guard waited for him to explain what was in his ziplock bag that looked suspiciously like marijuana.

There was another boy too, but Remus couldn’t remember for the life of him what his name was, all he knew was it was a very uncommon name and it had started with an S-

“Don’t forget again Sirius.”

Ah that was it.

He had just made it to the double doors that were the hospital wing when they burst open.

He jumped back instantly and managed to side step the black haired boy that strode out. 

So that must be Sirius, he thought.

He quickly took in his angular features and his piercing grey eyes, he also noticed he was a bit shorter than Remus himself. He watched as Sirius walked down the corridor and into the courtyard. Vaguely registering that he threw something away as he went.

Remus shook his head lightly, that boy had been riddled with angst. But then what else would you expect from a reform school?

He took a step into the wing and that’s when the realisation hit him.

Sirius had been wearing an ankle bracelet.

He looked down at his left ankle and watched the red light blink slowly.

He wasn’t alone.


End file.
